Fire safety planning for the preservation of historic department store building as cultural asset - A case study on Nihonbashi Mitsukoshi Main Store

Numbers of commercial buildings built before WWII are now considered historic monuments, yet most of them scarcely comply with current prescriptive fire safety requirements. This report shows an example of fire safety design for the preservation of Nihonbashi Mitsukoshi Main Store as cultural asset. The building features various weakness in fire safety including large open void penetrating five floors, staircases not satisfying the evacuation requirement etc. The proposed design utilizes existing fire shutters dividing each floor into three fire compartments as temporary fire refuges to overcome the weakness without changing any important historic elements of the building.